Forever or Never?

“I had to be reasonable. Seth, you know I couldn’t take you. And obviously you know already.”
“Mats, honestly, I don’t want you going halfway around the world without me at least on the same continent.”
“You know what, though? No one really likes it. But we had to make a compromise of some form that seemed fair on both sides. And meeting on neutral territory was my idea. I knew if I asked him to come here, he would assume a mutiny against the Volutri, and I wasn’t going to meet him in Volterra. That just would have been stupid on my part. And he wouldn’t hold to the terms then. He’d have too much back up in too close company.”
“You can’t stop me from flying over by myself. There’s no way you can stop me from going. Whether it’s with you or not, you can’t stop me.” Seth argued.
“No, but I can ask you to drop the subject. Please?” I didn’t want to plead with him, but if that was what it took to get his mind off my little trip to see Aro, I would.
“Ok.” Seth scooted himself next to me on the outcropping of rock we were sitting on and wrapped me in a hug. “What do you want to talk about?”
“I don’t care. Just not Aro.” He nodded and we were quiet for a while. “Oh. Did you ever get another hit from that unknown scent?”
“What?” Seth looked at me confused.
“That scent the pack found a while back that caught Leah and Jake’s attention.”
“Oh. That. We caught the edge of it again a couple weeks ago. It was the same trail and it was in the same place, so we haven’t really thought about it. Why?”
“Just wondering.”
“How’s Catie adjusting to her family? Quil said she decided to stay with them and live on the Rez instead of moving to town with Mary and David.”
“Well as far as I know. She seemed a bit surprised when she first met them, but after a couple times going over there and helping them get settled and catching up, they seem to be doing really well. They act like family at a family reunion. Talking and making small talk, swapping stories, but you can tell they aren’t that close yet.” My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out and motioned for Seth to be quiet. I stood and jumped lightly off the rock backwards and walked a few paces away before trying to talk.
“Where did you go? You just disappeared on me.”
“Sorry.” I chirped with no remorse in my voice.
“Uh-huh.” I flipped my phone shut and dropped in it Seth’s lap as I jumped off the rock and began a dive into the ocean below.
I came up out of the water and looked back to the speck that was the rock I had been on. I saw a dark mass jump off the rock and dive into the water, knowing Seth was following me. Well, he could only follow me if I kept coming up for air, and I didn’t need to. He had to breathe. I didn’t. I could have fun with this. I dove as deep as I could, and swam along the bottom of the ocean, letting the current carry me where it wanted to. I saw a shadow cast on the bottom and looked up to see Seth swim above me. I darted to the surface, kicking off from the bottom. I leveled out just before I broke the surface, and kicked my feet behind me, propelling me toward the beach again, and splashing the back of Seth’s head.
“Hey!” I heard Seth yell before I dove back into the water and did a turn and sat on the bottom cross-legged. I looked up and saw Seth stop above me. He dove down and picked me up by my waist and drug me back to the surface.
“Well, that’s not very nice. I was enjoying my underwater tea party with myself.”
“I’m sure you were.” Seth smiled as he flung me around himself so I was on his back. “Why did you-“
“Sh.” I shushed him, placing my hand over his mouth. I turned my head around back toward the open water where the scent had come from. Seth turned his head and looked toward the same place. The water was rippling about 300 feet from us.
“That’s the scent. Mateja, we need to go.” Seth said, starting to swim us back to the beach.
“No. You go. Call the pack. I’m gonna go see if I know who it is.” I told him, letting go of his back and diving back into the water. I opened my eyes and looked in the direction of the ripple. I could see a body swimming toward the beach. I took a right and swam to where I would meet him. I vaguely heard a wolf’s howl, coming from Seth no doubt. I sat in the stranger’s path until he got to me and stopped. I pointed to the surface so we could talk. We both went to the surface and broke out at the same time.
“Who are you?”
“I’m going to ask you the same question. This is my territory. Follow me. I don’t want to be this close to the beach.” I swam toward the rocks a little to my right, making sure he was following me. I climbed up onto the biggest rock and pulled my t-shirt away from my body so it wasn’t sticking in awkward places. The stranger climbed onto the rock across from me. That was the first time I felt compelled to run away from him.
“I was created in Seattle, years ago for a war I never wanted to fight.”
“What kind of war?”
“A revenge war. My creator never told us what the war was for, just that we needed numbers. I didn’t want to just be a number. I wanted to be alone. I knew the rules, and I left the group before they went to battle. I went to Vancouver and waited two days for one of the other vampires created to come meet me, she had said she would, but she never came.”
“Can I get a name?” I asked, trying to swallow the urge to get away from him.